Henry: It’s important to adhere to the adage that life goes on. All of us, and children in particular, need to have normalcy and balance in order to feel secure and emotionally healthy. It’s particularly important for children not to focus on the negative, but to learn instead to have a positive, resilient outlook that they can rely on throughout their lives.

While celebrating, we can easily incorporate thoughts, feelings and words to express our empathy and sympathy for those who have suffered. Finally, it should be acknowledged that these “down” feelings naturally tend to diminish with time, and we should consistently do our best to accept life occurrences, and to enrich our lives and the lives of those around us.

What suggestions would you have to ease emotions in this difficult time? What those who want to help others?

Henry: We should do our best to participate in organizations and groups, both formal and informal, which have been formed or exist to help others, to encourage a sense of community support that emulates a family connection. On a more personal level, we can reach out to someone who is lonely or suffering, perhaps an elderly neighbor, and make them cookies or spend time with them to spread good feelings rather than focusing on negative events and perspectives.